Empress of Death
by tylermech66
Summary: Solstheim-born Neka begins her journey into being one of the most powerful beings on Nirn, using dark magics and her own incredible intellect, she will forge her destiny with the power of her Soul. All will tremble at the rise of the Empress of Death!
1. Fugative

**Don't own nothing**

 **Just a few warnings, this story will be full of some dark shit later on. All the grisly details and such. If you have a weak stomach you shouldn't read this, or maybe I'll not make it that graphic just because I'm not skilled, shrug.**

 **Oh, and for the purposes of my story high elves, dark elves, and wood elves all look like they do in elder scrolls online, Skyrim did a bad job on that part :P**

* * *

 _ **Empress of Death**_

 _Tylermech66_

* * *

Neka opened her eyes as she woke to the motions of a wagon. She realized she was uncomfortably leaning back onto her bound arms and lean forwards.

She heard someone talking but ignored them as she attempted to remove the gag that she had in her mouth. It was still full of blood from when she had ripped out an imperial's bicep just after they had restrained her arms.

Neka glanced around and noticed that she was in a cart with some Stormcloak looking people. Although one was strangely... well dressed...

' _By Namira!_ " Neka lurched back from the man, he was Ulfric Stormcloak! if he was here-

"Ulfric Stormcloak? Your the leader of the rebellion! But if your with us... by the gods! Where are they taking us!?" Neka looked sharply at the skinny Nord, then ignored them again as she tried to manipulate the gag out of her mouth, using the gag itself to move the cloth keeping it in her mouth.

She realized it was futile so she then simply swallowed the wool gag whole, bit through the cloth meant to keep in the gag and leaned over the edge to activate her gag reflex, expelling the clothe from her throat with some bile added to it.

One of the imperials on horseback following looked astonished and somewhat disgusted at this feat and Neka grinned widely back with teeth stained of blood and bile, and he quickly turned away ignoring her.

'Yah, above your pay grade kid' Neka stretched her jaw a bit then spoke to the blonde Nord in a demanding way.

"Do you know of this area Stormcloak? Surely you must have traveled much and have a general idea." The Nord looked up at her, then glanced around at the scenery.

"Ah, I believe we are between Falkreath and Whiterun. I know these area. I was raised close to here, then that means..." He quickly peered up the road ahead, and Neka followed suit.

There was some of that cheap but effective cobblestone walls so popular with the Empire, with a big wooden gate, the Nord seemed both happy and saddened by the sight.

"Ah, this is Helgen. Raised here. I wonder if Vylod is still making that mead with juniper berries mixed in, funny, I never thought that I would think of these walls as the place of my death." The Nord turned back to her and attempted to introduce himself.

"So Elf, what's you're name? I'm Ralof, of the Stormcloaks obviously, hah." Neka didn't want to get to know this Ralof, but she decided he might help her escape if she was not to tell him to much.

"Neka, I'm a battlemage, no allegiance" Neka glanced at the sky as her acute hearing picked up the faintest echo, no one else noticed so she didn't even ask if they heard it, but the sound seemed familiar somehow, yet also alien.

The carts stopped, and everyone got out. She got out last and watched a young and inexperienced looking soldier reading a list.

"Name... thank you, name... thank you, name... thank you, name... your not on the list?" The captain gave a snort of derision.

"Pft, put her to the block like everyone else" The man looked shocked at this, obviously he had not yet experienced the REAL army yet.

"But ma'am-"

"Do it, soldier!" The soldier seemed to struggle with his convictions for a few moments.

"By your order... captain." The soldier looked to her with pity, and a bit of frustration in his eyes, he obviously didn't think this was justice... if only he knew.

"I'm sorry, we'll make sure your remains are returned to Morrowind. Go in line with the others."

Morrowind, that wasn't a place she'd been to in a while, only there a week as she traveled from her home of Solstheim and settled in Cyrodiil to escape... things.

And now, she would finally pay for her actions, but she wasn't going to let them kill her, not like this.

' _O_ _ne spell, that's all I need. Plenty of the dead, but no, the art of raising_ headless _corpses was lost long ago... something else!_ ' Neka squirmed her arms, she wouldn't be able to use spells anyway, she might be able to do a flame cloak spell, and other ones that didn't need direct use of the palm's magical focus points.

A flame cloak it is then, loosen the restriction on the spell, burn skin and clothes, worthy sacrifice.

Neka performed the spell, held it, then released it just as the ax came down on the first Stormcloak.

The soldier behind her got hit with the initial heat and stumbled back. Neka slammed her body back into him in such a way that her leather bonds hit his sword, cutting them just enough that the fire and her own strength could rip the rest.

She formed a fireball between both her hands just as the smarter soldier backed away quickly. Neka grinned manically as she slammed the fireball into the ground, making a fiery explosion that incinerated anyone nearby, including Ralof and the list reader.

She quickly grabbed a sword of the dead and readied another fireball in her left hand, only wincing slightly, long having been used to ignoring the burns all over her skin. Aiming at the general who was attempting to stare her down she let a smirk come across her relatively burn-free face.

"Now then, Mr. Tulius, I am going to leave... _peacefully,_ and you are not going to stop me or you and your entire imperial squad next to you is killed by the fire rune you are now standing on, DON'T MOVE, you'll... _die._ " Tulius looked down and saw that he was indeed standing on a rune. He obviously had no idea how she'd done that and she wouldn't tell him.

"Right now I am keeping it from exploding with my magicka, if I die you do to, and will also if your soldiers move, because I'm nice like that." Neka Turned to Ulfric and undid his gag and bonds, then moved onto another Stormcloak as she spoke next.

"Ulfric, All I ask for releasing you and your people is to not try to kill the general right now and help me get out of here. I don't want the legion after me anymore than they already will be" Ulfric glared at Tulius but nodded, isn't Nord honor useful?

"We owe you a debt of gratitude mage, we will respect your decision, but as soon as you are outside the walls all debts will be payed." Neka nodded.

"Fair enough, let's go!" They started running and the gates were up ahead, but the loudest roar of them all suddenly hit them and a shadow covered them, the people finally noticing.

Neka looked up and gasped in shock, a DRAGON! A real dragon that looks to be in a familiar sort of mood.

"I think we need to run faster!" The Stormcloaks and Ulfric as efficiently as they could removed the deadlock from the gate and pushed them open, getting out and running as fast as they could into the wilderness, Neka ran the other way, along the outer wall so that the dragon would follow the larger group and ignore her.

She made it to the north side and quickly made her way down the slopes, until she came across a bandit ridden mine, Neka killed the Bandit guarding the entrance and, feeling much safer inside, took a small breather before clearing the mine of bandits, then she hunkered down as soon as she made a few corpses stand guard at the entrance before entering the chieftain's room and plopping herself into the wood and fur bed.

She was exhausted, she needed sleep. She'd heal her burns tomorrow.

* * *

 **This started out as a little experiment, then I realized that it could make a damn fine story if I did it right, which is why I have some of the story completed instead of my usual crap of updating as I finish stuff.**

 **I hope for this to be one of the greats, but I'm not afraid to do a few taboo things, if you haven't guessed as to Neka's nature yet.**

 **I'll try to keep Author's Notes to a minimum.**


	2. Riverwood

**And now for the second chapter, where you get to see real ACTION!... :P**

* * *

 _ **Empress of Death**_

 _Tylermech66_

* * *

The next morning Neka woke up from the dirty, matted bed and started gathering her new loot. The rags she was currently wearing would never be enough to protect her.

Walking through the mine, she stripped a female bandit close to her dimensions of her hide armor. It wasn't great but it would do. then she stripped a few of the banded iron pieces from the chieftain. The Pauldrons, gauntlets, and the calve pieces. Any of the other pieces didn't fit.

Picking up a simple steel sword and, thank the gods, a green cloth hood. Neka left her little haven before another bandit clan could decide to make it their home, her new coin pouch jingling with an excess of gold.

Walking down the pathway towards the light smoke she could see in the sky. Neka eventually made it to a hamlet that, for some strange reason, only had a short wall on both ends of the road, but it didn't encircle the entire hamlet. It confused her the utter uselessness of the wall.

Maybe it was a Nord thing...

Anyway, she realized that her gathering of makeshift armor may have been useless when she saw the blacksmith working away at his forge.

Neka walked up to the blacksmith and shook her coin pouch.

"May I use your forge Sirrah? As you can see, my current armor is blatantly useless." The nord man chuckled and nodded, not complaining about the amount of armor as he would have let her use the forge for free, but Neka did not know that (imperial smithies are far less generous)

Looking up at the sun, she nodded to herself and decided that the day would last long enough for her to make some basic steel armor. Working up the forge Neka glanced around at the pieces of armor hanging from the rafters for inspiration and got to work using the Nord style steel armor as a base.

After several long hours, an impressed Alvor looked over her armor.

"Impressive, you been smithing long lass?" Neka shrugged, nord style armor was remarkably easy to make, much less complicated parts. It would protect less but it would do.

"I got some lessons here and there, thinking about improving my skills eventually but I havn't had the time. Maybe I can start soon." Hmm.

Anyway, her new armor was basically a set of steel armor. But the, rather dumb looking in her opinion, pauldrons were replaced with thick leather half mantles that stopped just short of her elbows. They each had a simple engraving that depicted a stylized skull over the shoulders, using a nordic design for it to match her armor.

The lower part of the armor resembled the nord plate armor, but it had some thick protective leather to make a sort of coattail extending from under the waist armor, resembling the ends of some robes she'd seen. **(An: think the coattails of Ezio's suits from Assassin's Creed except thick leather.)**

Her feet were mostly bare (She blushed at that part when asked, she hated shoes), but they had a thick flap of leather over the top of her feet with a strap under the arch of her feet, mostly to stop her armor from chafing from the calf armor, of which had the upper part of the imperial steel armor.

The left gauntlet had been made with very thick slabs of steel, to act as a shield while she used her magic. If the opposing weapon was either steel or a lesser material she could just grab the blade and stab the enemy with her other hand. The fingers were thick and had sharp ends for ripping flesh.

Also she had pieced together a loose leather hood to give her an intimidating aura while protecting her head from scratches, cuts, and water. Like all the leather parts, it had some stylized swirling patterns.

She bought a large swath of leather that she stitched a black bear fur into and made it into a thick, light armor fur cloak that extended to her ankles, raising the very large hood over her head she smiled to the blacksmith who was nodding to himself, he had just been inspired for a similar armor she knew it.

The thick leather of the cloak was engraved with swirling nordic designs mixed in with a few well hidden stylized skulls.

And finally, she quickly threw together a large leather satchel and duffel bag. The satchel would be at her side under the cloak but the duffel bag would be slung from her back.

"Thank you, this is much more comfortable." He smirked and looked to the armor.

"Just so you know, most Nord blacksmiths will let you use the forge free of charge, but I wouldn't refuse a good amount of gold." Neka chuckled and decided to keep that in mind as she left for the general store, she needed some potions as she didn't have the materials to make them herself at the moment.

* * *

Upon entering the store Neka immediately noticed the somber air, then the argument between siblings brought her to the counter.

"And again I will not let you go traipsing into a ruin full of undead to retreat it! If anything I'll pay a mercenary, end of story!" Coughing lightly into her hand, Neka caught the siblings' attention.

"I need some health and magicka potions, if you have them... oh, and could you show me any spellbook that you have on hand?" The man shooed his sister away and got to work gathering the materials. He laid them on the counter and Neka, curious, looked over the names and effects of the spell books.

It appeared that Nordic spells were designed less for finesse than they were for power. She liked that. The adept level cyrodilic spells she knew were not as powerful as the apprentice level Nordic spells. It made her wonder what spells she could find in Morrowind.

Of course, she already knew a few of the Nordic spells, fireball and flame cloak and flame rune, but otherwise her spells were Cyrodilic.

"If you are interested in magic I believe the College of Winterhold has a vast knowledge collected, never been there myself but I have heard good, and bad of course, things about it." Neka nodded gratefully, woe be the person who was rude to the person serving them.

Either way, she spent most of the last of her gold on all the basic spellbooks and a good amount of potions and a Dwarven dagger, useful things, superbly durable and good as a weapon and a multi use tool. Then her curiosity got the better of her.

"What was it you were arguing about?" The imperial, Lucan she believed, looked embarrassed.

"Well, it's a tad embarrassing. You see I used to have this large, golden claw that I would leave on the counter as a decoration and ice breaker. A conversation piece if you will. It brought a few more customers than usual to my store. But recently it's been stolen! Some bandits came in the dead of night and took it up to Bleak Falls Barrow. I don't know why, it wasn't worth much more than anything else here, guess because it was made of gold and looked more so." Rubbing his chin, he looked at Neka up and down.

"I have a proposition, if you could retrieve my claw I'd be willing to pay you three time's it's worth plus some more potions, what say you?" Neka glanced into her now almost empty coin pouch and nodded, she needed the money.

"Good! I must warn you, undead tend to crawl in those crypts, the Nord dead are buried there I believe. Uh, the Nords call them Draugr, be careful." While this would make most other people less sure of the quest, Neka suddenly was _very_ interested in it.

You see, she was a, rather skilled if she said so herself, necromancer. Her two main focuses in magic were death and fire (she adores fire...), and she was always interested in new, different death magic techniques.

Her own goal in life was to make herself into a perfect lich, but keep her soul, or something similar, immortality at least, without being bound to a daedric prince.

It was a long and dangerous goal that would take her years but it was a goal nonetheless.

Oh, and a side goal to figure out how to raise headless undead, it was a lost art.

Anyway, she quickly left for the Barrow and, with a new fire in her eyes, climbed the mountain.

* * *

Neka hummed to herself as she walked up the steps. Her satchel was already jingling with gold from that tower she raided. It wasn't much but it was a start. Plus she had some loot in her bag.

She was glad she made the cloak though as the biting winds of skyrim buffeted her as she climbed. She was Solstheim born and used to the cold, but only a pure nord could deal with this with a smile.

Good thing she liked the cold, in comparison to the heat at least.

But before she could lament more an arrow thumped into the ground right next to her, raising her arms she readied a fire in her left hand ready to try her new spells.

A war cry echoed through the blizzard and she could make out a charging figure. Unsheathing her sword Neka sprinted towards the figure and just as he was about to swing down his iron greatsword she raised her armored hand, grabbed the blade jolting her to the bone and she stabbed her shortsword into his heart.

He, in his dying breaths, took out his dagger and tried to stab her but she simply stepped back and watched him die, it takes a while to die most of the time she had noticed.

Quickly rifling through his pockets for a few pieces of gold she continued and an arrow slammed into her armored leg, luckily the steel had bounced it away but still she cursed her forgetfulness.

Wreathing herself in a cloak of fire Neka charged again, the bandit tried to shoot her but she was too fast for him to aim at. Finally she slammed into him but she had only stabbed him in the kidney, meaning he'd still function but would die eventually. He kneed her away but this gave her the chance to throw a fireball at his face. Despite herself his panicked and pain filled screams made her smirk, just a little. Finally she ended his suffering by stabbing him in the neck with her dagger, where the head connects to the spine.

One more bandit was guarding the large iron doors so she picked up a bow and carefully aimed at her face, the arrow was let loose and she died almost instantly, only letting out a short scream before dying.

She unstrung the longbow and placed it around her body along with a quiver of iron arrows. Walking up to the large iron doors she let out a long breathe, then pushed them open.

* * *

 **Ok! Just so you know I COULD have made this longer but I decided not to, just so I can come out with regular updates (Yay!)**

 **A fun fact, Neka started out as a character for a side story I was planning to write to experiment with an uber evil character, but she evolved slowly in my brainbox into a relatable character until she wasn't in the "Bad guy" class anymore and more into the "Rather dark magnificent bastard" class :P**


	3. The Wall, the Word

**And we continue! I've only got a few reviews so far though... i feel sad. Please review, I NEEDZ IT!**

* * *

 _ **Empress of Death**_

 _Tylermech66_

* * *

Neka sighed in relief as the biting wind and cold were taken away, it was still cold, but this cold she liked. But the damp, not so much.

Getting her bearings, Neka rushed behind a pillar as she heard some curious muttering.

"Olev, Argor! What are you doing letting in the cold!" A Nordic woman wearing nothing but a few furs stomped up to the doors but then looked confused, obviously she thought someone had entered.

"Huh? Must have been the wind. I guess even iron submits to the cold, ha." The bandit woman walked back to a small fire with several other bandits. As Neka watched she spotted the lecherous looks of the men over the few women in the band. The first woman seemed to give a resigned sigh and was about to remove her top before Neka decided she wasn't in the mood.

She prepared an overloaded fireball between her hands and walked towards the small camp, one of them had only just noticed her before she released the flames. Pained screams echoed through the chamber as most of them died. A few, burnt and bleeding, got back up but a few firebolts got rid of them.

Neka glanced around a picked the most promising of subjects. Weaving her magic into his body he rose up, wheezing aching breath spewing from his mouth. He was quietly begging to be released and Neka shook her head.

"No, your mine now, obey." It stopped struggling and followed her through the tunnels, the last vestiges of its mind fading away.

Neka had formed a theory as to why the dead did such things. The mind and the soul were separate. The brain made you think but the souls also did. It confused her but the more she experimented the more she learned.

She collected loot from everywhere, chests, drawers, urns, coffins. she didn't care about the sanctity of the dead. She even collected several tiny sealed jars of ash to experiment on, a long run experiment of her's that was still ongoing.

Finally, they reached a chamber where a giant spider dropped from the ceiling. She sent her thrall at it and it caused some damage, but the spider destroyed it before advancing on her.

She wasn't used to skyrim's creatures, but Neka loved a challenge. Strafing around the beast while stabbing occasionally with her sword, it finally grew desperate and tried to slam her to the ground with it's legs.

Rolling out of the way she threw a rune on the ground under it and it exploded up into the air. Neka dodged out of the way of a blob of slime.

Rolling her shoulders, Neka finally noticed another Dunmer struggling in the web of a doorway.

"Please, let me out of here!" Neka looked him over and shrugged, an uncaring look in her eye.

"And why should? Your as likely to stab in the back as praise me for saving you." The elf struggled more.

"I can tell you how to open the doorway! You need the claw, but I have the knowledge on how to use it!" Tilting her head, Neka shook her head.

"I have no idea what your talking about, anyway, your in my way." She ran forwards and stabbed into his still neck, almost decapitating him.

She got to the bloody and messy task of removing the webbing from the doorway. Then she riffled through his pockets and in his satchel she found the golden claw and a journal.

Quickly grabbing the journal she looked over his, surprisingly neat, notes on the claw.

"Mm, so there is a power further in that you need to pass a puzzle first, and the answer is on the claw? This sounds less like a security measure and more like a test. Hmm, I like these ancient nords, they're so generous." She smirked at the final bit.

Putting the claw and the journal away, Neka realized that her own journal, with all her research notes and drawings that she would never show anyone, was gone. The imperials had taken it away.

She really hoped they hadn't read it, it held some VERY incriminating evidence, plus...

She blushed,

They better not have read it!

Maybe Helgen will hold it somewhere, in the carts if it wasn't incinerated.

Anyway, back to the task at hand.

Neka got back up and ventured further into the cave, curious about this ancient power.

She made her way down the tomb. Until she started to hear the sounds of machines in the distance. Going slower and more carefully, Neka noticed a large room filled with metal sarcophagi.

Walking into this room without thinking, she noticed the mummified bodies began to move. Cursing herself Neka threw a rune at the feet of one before it got up and threw a fireball at two walking ones who were grouped together. Then just as the rune exploded destroying the first draugr she started flinging firebolts at the approaching Draugr pair.

Finally, they are all down and Neka let her shoulders slump, but before she could catch her breath something large impacted on her back and the breath was knocked out of her as she was flung to the ground.

Quickly rolling to the side Neka spotted a battleaxe wielding Draugr glaring at her.

It was about to slam the axe into her head before Neka rolled forwards, knocking its feet out from under it and pulling out her dagger. Spinning around she stabbed not to its heart but at its head, multiple times.

Finally, after struggling much, the Draugr collapsed and the light left its eyes.

Cautiously this time, Neka had a firebolt ready as she made sure every Draugr was permanently dead before continuing on, avoiding the rather obvious spike wall trap but making sure to memorize the trigger plate so she could spot less obvious traps.

Then she came upon another chamber so she stopped before entering and carefully observed the resting dead. A few of them had better weapons and armor so she marked them in her head as undead while most of the wrapped or extremely shriveled up ones were obviously truly dead.

Throwing a rune next to one she ran forwards and stabbed the head of another. The rune exploded and she threw several fireballs ast the approaching three draugr.

Backstepping she ran forwards and tripped one, stomping on its neck to separate the control from the head to the body, which killed it. The next one she charged a fire ball in her hand but instead of throwing it she grasped its face with her armor claws, boiling away the flesh until the undeath left its body.

The other draugr growled and ran at her, but then she threw the last of her magicka's worth of fire at it until it died.

Huffing, she looked to the swinging blade corridor and groaned.

* * *

A few hour later Neka was resting her upper body on her knees by grabbing them. Huffing and puffing, she stayed like that for a minute before standing up again.

Opening the door she let out a gasp of shock at the extremely large cavern.

While she had done some spelunking every now and then in Cyrodiil, none of the caves had had such large expanses. Looking up as she approached the water her jaw dropped at the beautiful view of the what must be the sunset's light on the top of the waterfall. But that light reminded her to quicken her pace otherwise she would have no light to go by.

Walking up to the stone platform Neka suddenly felt drawn to the large stone half circle. Brushing her hands against the seemingly glowing words she suddenly felt its meaning insert itself into her mind.

 _Fus_

For some reason, while she knew this word, it was embedded into her mind, she could not understand it, even if it felt familiar to her very being.

It was frustrating.

But before she could lament on this more, the lid to the sarcophagus blew off into the air, the largest Draugr yet lifted itself out, wielding an equally large greatsword.

Giving out an enraged rattle, it surged forwards, attempting to swing overhead and split her in two.

But Neka rolled to the side and cloaked herself in fire before trying to stab the undead, but the Draugr just ran forwards and got impaled in the stomach, which Neka knew to be a useless part.

It swung down again and Neka attempted to block the attack with her sword, but that was knocked out of her hands and into the creek.

Then the Draugr let out a malicious chuckle, its hate filled eyes growing brighter as Neka began to freak out.

Undead shouldn't have emotions! They at most should only be able to echo their former selves, but she was sure that was independent emotion!

The Draugr was actually pausing to _revel_ in its imminent victory, that was something distinctly... mortal. But then it swung down at her and she slid to the side again, throwing three fireballs, each one knocking the beast back by a few feet. It recovered before sinking into the creek though and gave out a shrieking battlecry.

But before it could charge her again Neka rushed forwards and grasped its face with her left armor claws, letting her fire magic burn into it. She wrapped her right arm around its neck and _pulled_.

Then with a loud crack its spine was separated, and it fell backwards trapping Neka under it. Breathing heavily, she laid there and tried to catch her breath.

After a minute she shakily got back up and looked over the now truly dead Nord. She spotted a strange tablet of stone.

Picking it up, she saw that it was a map with a few bits of the word wall text here and there. Putting it in her satchel to study later she began to loot the room, taking the large enchanted greatsword to sell later along with the various amounts of gold throughout the room. The things she liked most though were the soul gems, one was even filled. Now she could continue her research.

She also wrote down the strange writing on the wall, strangely when she was writing she seemed to fall into a sort of trance, almost... sensing echoes of a story.

Finally, she found a strange device on a suspicious wall which required her to pull it out and twist. But then the wall began to lift up and she realized it was a shortcut.

Steeling herself, Neka ran through with the fear that it would fall on her, when it didn't she chuckled nervously to herself before continuing on, time to collect her reward.

* * *

Walking through the forest along the riverbank, Neka came to an odd shack, an old woman in mage's robes sat there tending to a garden, she waved at her and Neka waved back.

As she left she didn't see the knowing smirk on the old woman's face before she turned back to her gardening.

* * *

Back in Riverwood, Neka entered the Riverwood Trader and slumped down in a chair, exhausted. Lucan leaned over the counter excited.

"Do you have my claw?" Neka smirked and took it out of her satchel, raising it in the air and she could have sworn she saw Lucan jump with joy.

Taking it back, he handed her a fat sack of coins along with a few more health and magicka potions.

"Thank you, I really am grateful. I guess it also has sentimental value huh?" She shrugged and began to leave.

"Your welcome here anytime! With a bit of a discount." Neka nodded thankfully and left.

* * *

Looking around Riverwood, Neka sold the enchanted greatsword but Alvor hadn't had the money to pay for it, so they made a trade along with the gold. She got a new shortsword, her's bent and twisted.

Then she walked into the sleeping giant inn to rest a bit, and ask the people if there was anyone who knew about that fascinating wall.

Sitting down at a table, the innkeeper came her way.

"So, want anything to eat or drink?" Neka shrugged.

"I guess I'll try some of that Nord mead I'm always hearing about, along with some roasted chicken or whatever meat you have ready." The innkeeper nodded and went to the back to collect those items while Neka took the tablet out of her pack.

Neka ran her fingers over the little holes etched into it and figured that these were important checkpoints of some form. When the innkeeper came back she spoke up.

"Do you know of anyone in Skyrim who studies strange stone walls with ancient script on them? Or the ancient nordic tombs?" The Innkeeper seemed to freeze for the briefest of seconds before replying.

"Yes, there is a mage up in Whiterun who tinkers with such things. I think he's the court mage." Nodding, Neka put the tablet away and dug into her food.

* * *

If there was one thing that Neka had to say she liked about Skyrim, then it would be the mead. It had a nice taste unlike most other alcohols (which she didn't usually drink).

It was even better than that home brewed sujamma she had snuck a sip of when she still lived in Solstheim, ah memories!

Securing her pack, Neka began the trek to Whiterun hold.

* * *

 **Ah yes, a tiny bit of filler at the end, but I like this chapter, it lets you see a bit more of Neka other than combat.**

 **I think she's getting fleshed out quite well, and isn't too overpowered, which is a surprise.**

 **As to the bandit thing, well, it just makes sense, at least for the grunt female bandits. In a band of merciless cutthroats, it's not a good thing to be attractive... unless you enjoy it, but meh :P**

 **Also, I know nothing about alcohol, as I don't drink. :P**


	4. Dovah

**And now, time for Neka to meet a dragon :D**

* * *

 _ **Empress of Death**_

 _Tylermech66_

* * *

Neka stared as three Nords battled a giant.

She had of course heard about giants, but she hadn't realized, even when she knew she was in Skyrim, that she'd ever see one in person.

Watching it- no _him_ fight, she realized how much potential giants had.

He was obviously intelligent like the common races, but such strength!

He was slow though, and that was his downfall as the scantily clad female warrior dashed into his guard and stabbed into his spin, making his legs collapse under him.

A deep wailing cry echoed out as the giant felt that crippling blow, and the warrior put him out of his misery by stabbing into his eye.

A few victory calls when out.

"Yes, the beast is dead!" Neka narrowed her eyes, of course, these were Nords, she'd forgotten their racism again.

Though to be fair, most of the common races were just as racist about beings such as giants and similar beings.

She had managed to converse with a goblin shaman once, traded a few necromancy techniques even, so she knew they were intelligent too.

She never claimed she was perfect, but racist she was not.

And Neka demonstrated that mentioned imperfection again by not noticing the female warrior was already in front of her.

Blinking and not showing her shock, she looked her over analytically.

Why wear such armor? The only thing it looked to be useful for would be distraction and possibly protecting from brambly branches.

"So, you were too cowardly to join in on the fight eh?" Neka blinked again, and narrowed her eyes.

"That giant hadn't done me any wrong, I saw no reason to join in." The woman snorted.

"Neither has a troll yet anyone would fight that, coward." Neka's eyes narrowed even further.

"Well then, I believe you should leave this coward alone." The Nord snorted again and walked away back to her companions, she spoke with them a bit and they laughed and made their way to the city.

Neka let out a huff and looked to the giant.

Yes, lots of potential.

* * *

Making her way through the ruined outer battlements of the Nordic city, Neka was about to go for the gates when a guard stopped her.

"Stop, no one can enter the city, there are dragons about." Neka's eyebrow twiched in annoyance. She glanced around and saw that there was dozens of guards about the walls and sighed.

"I've got business with the court wizard, so let me through, Unless you want to answer to one of the Jarl's court?." The guard hummed in thought before nodding.

"Alright then, open the gates!" The gates opened and Neka quickly made it in before the guards changed their minds.

Entering the city, Neka was surprised at the hustle and bustle of the city. She hadn't expected there to be so many people living up here in this frozen wilderness, especially since crops couldn't grow very well.

But she guessed that was why Skyrim was part of the Empire, Cyrodiil provided food and legitimacy, and Skyrim provided great warriors and protection from the north.

Anyway, she made her way through the city, selling off her loot at the various appropriate stores. She bought a sweet roll from a vendor and continued up the steps.

When she heard of a famous blacksmith though she couldn't help but be distracted. So she changed course and found herself at the Skyforge.

It was a wondrous piece of machinery. The large forge glowed with so much heat that it seemed to slightly melt the stone eagle above it. A large grey-haired Nord was tending the mighty forge, making steel weapons.

But then she noticed something that any decent mage would.

"This forge, there's so much magic flowing through it." This caught the attention of the blacksmith as he quenched the blade and stood up.

"What was that elf? About the Skyforge." Kneeling down by it, Neka could feel the massive amount of magical power.

"There's so much magicka flowing from this forge, in fact I haven't felt this much magicka in one place... ever!" Fascinated Neka stood up. The Nord though just shrugged.

"Yes, it is built atop a great source of ancient power, it allows me to forge mighty weapons of Nordic steel." Wincing, Neka lamented on the wasted potential. This forge could make so much more than _steel._

"Have you ever tried ebony or other such stronger metals?" The man grunted.

"Steel is dependable and sharp, what do we need mystical metals for?" Sighing, Neka walked away back to her task.

Walking up the steps to the keep, a guard or two asked her a few questions then allowed her to continue, basic security and such, surprisingly she was allowed to bring her weapons, but this was due to, apparently, trust in their Jarl's Housecarl.

Entering through the massive oaken doors, Neka looked around in amazement.

A massive long hearth ran the length of the great hall, she could see a tree had been brought in and just dumped on it, such was the size of it. Two long tables lined the hearth and at the end of the hall was a wooden throne, but that wasnt the impressive part.

The impressive part was the massive, reptilian skull hanging above the throne. It had four horns and very thick bone.

"Amazing." A servant to the side giggled but went back to her task quickly enough, but Neka got the jist. All newcomers are impressed.

Walking up the steps, Neka grew nervous as she realized what she was doing. Her, a practiced necromancer, was approaching the law of the land. She had to be careful.

A Dunmer approached her as she was trying to figure out where to go.

"Who are you? What is your purpose approaching the Jarl's court without announcement." Neka rose a brow.

"I am here to meet the court wizard." The Dunmer humphed and sheathed her sword.

"You will speak to the Jarl first, come, and show respect!" Neka reluctantly nodded and allowed herself to be led to the Jarl. Bowing awkwardly she spoke.

"I request an audience with the court wizard your, uh, lordship?" Balgruuf burst out laughing .

"Girl, there's no need to be so uptight here in Skyrim. we are a strait and to the point people, if you don't start insulting us we are pretty much good with anything." Relaxing her shoulders a bit, Neka nodded.

The Dunmer woman spoke up.

"You will say 'My Jarl', for future reference." Balgruuf waved her off and turned back to Neka.

"I will let you go to Farengar, he's been working on a project to assess the situation with the dragons, so speak to him about that too if your interested." Neka nodded and walked towards the side room, thinking.

Dragons, such mighty creatures could be... a wealth of potential knowledge.

Entering, Neka smirked at the messy assortment of books, potions, and scrolls. The man in question was mumbling to himself as he read a scroll with some strange lettering, Neka suspected it was daedric.

"Ahem, Farengar I take it?" Startled, the wizard tried to stand up but he caught the back of a staff and tripped over himself, falling on his ass he groaned.

"What is it! Don't you see I'm busy!" Chuckling, Neka reached for her satchel.

"I've heard you know about the stone walls that are found deep in Nordic ruins? With strange script on them?" Looking up Farengar looked much more interested.

"What do you have for me?" Taking out the tablet, Neka placed it on the table.

"I found this on the body of the head Draugr, it holds some of the same script as the wall, i also wrote down the writings from the word wall as accurately as I could, I was hoping you knew how to translate it?" Farengar snatched the tablet from her hands and quickly looked it over.

"This is exactly what I was looking for! How did you come to find it?!" Neka shrugged.

"I raided an ancient burial tomb, nothing too unusual." Farengar grunted.

"Well, I'll have to-" Before he could continue, the Dunmeri woman from before came rushing in, slightly panting but not gasping for air.

"FARENGAR! We have a situation. A dragon is attacking the western watchtower!" Farengar shot up.

"What! We must study it immediately!" The Dunmer growled.

"This is not the time for games Farengar, we need to secure the sight. Come with me to the Jarl, we'll make a plan of action." Just before she left, she hesitated and turned to Neka.

"You come too, we may need a few more hands for this, and I can smell the magic on you." Neka admitted to herself that she was curious, so she followed.

They went up the stairs into a large room designed for private meetings and also for war planning. It had a very large door on the opposite end.

The Jarl was addressing one of his guards.

"Ok soldier, slow down, we need an accurate report."

"Yes my lord, uh, the dragon came out of no where, none of us could see it coming. I got out of there before it even got to us, I thought it would eat me for sure. I could only hear the screaming and destruction from behind me." Balgruuf made a placating gesture.

"Good good, now go down to the barracks for some food and rest, you've earned it." The guard made his way back down and Balgruuf turned to the Dunmer.

"Irileth, we need to drive out this dragon." Irileth bowed.

"I've already gathered my men, we are ready at your command." Balgruuf nodded then turned to Neka.

"I believe that you could help me much, oh, and here, as a reward for the help with my wizard, a piece from my personal armory." He handed Neka a strange single bracer made of steel, it was obviously enchanted so she tapped it and felt its purpose. It was enchanted to make her blade skills better, nodding in appreciation, she removed her simple steel right gauntlet and placed this on before following Irileth out of the castle.

* * *

The group of soldiers and necromancer rushed through the city, occasionally knocking aside a haughty rich farm owner in their haste.

Neka was interested by the concept of a dragon. She of course knew they existed after the attack on Helgen, but still, to see one up close, perhaps, if she killed it, they would let her keep the corpse?

Neka smiled slowly as her resolve rose, if she got the corpse of a Dragon, imagine the possibilities. She didn't know if they were sentient of not, but even if they weren't, then having an uncontrollable beast of mighty power would be useful in its own way. (Animals aren't able to be easily controlled when undead)

They exited the city, and approached an area where smoke was rising. Stopping by a rock outcropping, Neka squinted over at the watchtower.

"Well, I don't see a dragon, but there is still the possibility it might return, we should probably stay together instead of spreading out." Irileth looked over to her, annoyed.

"I tell the orders here girl, just be glad I'm not an Imperial commander." Neka smirked but didn't say anything else.

They approached the tower, but as soon as they did Neka heard a roar in the sky.

A helmet-less soldier came running out.

"Run, get out of here! The dragon could come back at any moment!" Neka prepared her fire magic, letting the fireball build up between her hands for an extra powerful attack.

Irileth glared over at the sky where the dragon's form could be seen approaching.

"Everyone, spread out, I don't want you getting burnt to a crisp!" At her order, everyone broke up.

But Neka felt something stir inside her at the sight of the dragon, her gaze caught its, and she knew immediately that it wasn't a dumb beast, it was as intelligent as her or anyone else, possibly more so.

As she readied herself, it came close enough for her to launch.

Two fireballs hit the dragon as it neared the ground, quickly followed by two more. The explosive fire staggered the mighty creature ever so slightly, enough for it to make a landing.

Roaring in anger, it looked to Neka.

"Yol... toor SHUUUUUUU-"A stream of powerful flames engulfed Neka. But to no avail and she ran through them, the singing of her skin making her grunt in pain, and stabbed her sword into its tongue.

Getting under its neck, she tried to slice it along the throat, but cried out in frustration as her blade did nothing to get passed its scales.

He, for some reason she could feel that it was at the very least masculine, growled at her.

"Dovahkiin!" These words didn't cause any effect, so she knew it must have been a curse or something, ignoring this, Neka yelled as she instead of slashing tried to stab between the scales.

This actually got some success, but only marginally, the scales were rigid enough that she couldn't get her rather thick blade very far in.

Stepping back but losing her sword, Neka growled in anger.

The dragon spewed flame again, but she noticed his words were slurred from the injury, and this somehow made the fire less powerful.

She was still recovering from her last run, Dunmer don't get burnt quite like other races, but the heat still damaged them, she was sure that she had lost several layers of skin, and would be very sensitive for the next few days. The few blackened parts would have to be peeled off.

She glared at the dragon.

Readying her magic again, she ran at him again, but this time jumped on the dragon's back.

Reaching for the head, she grabbed a hold of his horns, and used her dagger to stab into his eyes.

Now shrieking in pain... deeply, the dragon bucked and she was sent flying...

For fifty feet.

She only saw the ground approaching before all was black.

...

And suddenly she was awake again, as a sudden feeling of overwhelming power washed over her.

Her eyes snapped open, and she got up, feeling her heart beating faster and faster.

She saw the aetherial energies swirling around her, and she stared at the rapidly decaying/burning corpse of the dragon.

Suddenly, an overwhelming urge took her over, just as her eyes widened.

She understood what Fus meant, force

" **FUS!** " With that simple but yet not simple word, her world changed forever.

A shock wave spread through the air, shooting forth rocks and grass. It even hit the far away Whiterun guards, whose eyes widened as they had to steady themselves.

Neka's eyes widening with sudden realization, she then grinned with a bloodthirsty glee.

 _I've got the VOICE!_

The soldiers began yelling out exclamations and hurrahs.

"It's the Dragonborn!"

"The Dragonborn!"

"She's got the Voice, she must be Dragonborn!" Neka just kept grinning even as Irileth began to tear into her soldiers, but she felt for some reason that the title wasn't quite right.

Dovahkiin, that dragon had looked to her and said that.

Somehow she knew that they were one in the same.

Anyways, standing up fully now, Neka felt the power coursing inside her. It wasn't powering her magicka, but instead her soul directly. This wouldn't enhance her normal magics, but she had heard there were others that directly used the soul's energy, other, more primal magics.

She'd have to visit the Reach soon.

But anyway, with a new sense of confidence, Neka began walking back to Whiterun to get her reward.

* * *

 **"DOVAHKIIN!"** Neka fell to the ground as the power of those words hit her.

They sounded loud yet muted, but the power still hit her, telling her the words were most definitely for her, as she didn't see anyone else collapsing.

Standing back up, Neka looked up to the large mountain in the distance, then back to the keep.

She'd get answers from one of the locals.

* * *

Neka sat cross legged in front of the Jarl, having gotten tired of standing seeing as how long-winded these Nords could be.

And finally, he was done. So, she was a legendary figure of lore and myth, the Dragonborn, or Dovahkiin, if her suspicions were right. But it was his next words that really threw her for a loop.

"Neka, I have decided that you are indeed of honorable strength, enough so that you may have the highest honor I am capable of granting. I thus name you Thane of Whiterun, a worthy title for the slayer of a dragon." Neka's eyes were wide, even as he described the pros and cons of the title.

She... she was technically nobility now. Even if one of the lower end of the spectrum. But still, now she actually mattered in the grand scheme of politics.

Standing up, Neka bowed.

"It is an honor my Jarl."

The power, she knew there was much money in those Nordic tombs, and she could easily get enough to pay for several houses and rent them out, and once your nobility, the more money and land you had, the more you mattered.

She began to feel a plan come together.

* * *

 **Yes, I will soon enough have politics come into play, but don't worry, there will still be action and adventure to come.**

 **She isn't done with her journey after all.**


	5. Daedra and Old Loot

**I am VERY VERY sorry for the long-ass wait, it's just the initial lack of reviews made me very very sad, mostly because of how much work I put into those chapters.**

 **But now I'm back, and hopefully my story quality is just as good as before!**

* * *

 _ **Empress of Death**_

 _Tylermech66_

* * *

Neka was currently in the process of organizing all of her new books and her collected journals.

The books were all that she had access to at the time, which covered three bookshelves (she'd been ordering them from all over the empire), and a repurposed wine rack full of her personal scrolls and scrolls with other information in them.

She kept a small collection of journals from her recent adventures and future adventures on a small shelf, with her personal journals locked away in a chest.

Sighing, she nodded appreciatively to Lydia, her newly appointed housecarl, as she was handed a bowl of venison soup.

Sitting down at her table next to the fire, she ate the soup whilst writing down new information in journal #3

 _Obtained nobility status by slaying a dragon, noted for possibility of exploitation in other holds._

 _Dragon's flesh eviscerates itself somehow after death, look into possible ways of stopping this, meanwhile, begin to study recovered bones, they have already shown remarkable properties for armor, but need many different dragons worth of bones for usable pieces._

 _Bones also show remarkable application for use in staff making, must consult with an expert of staffcrafting._

 _Giants hold much potential for experimentation, their size alone will allow for strong thralls. Considering their relative rarity, I must hasten my own necromancy training to allow for permanent thralls._

 _ **Priority** , begin studies on the soul, if legends of dragon soul in mortal body true, possible applications for... something, I don't know, but I aim to find out._

Quickly marking down many other less important things, Neka finally stood up and stretched until her vertebrae popped, as she let out a little moan at the feeling.

She then walked to the mirror and looked at her mess of hair, pulling it out of its impromptu ponytail, she began the long arduous task of untangling every knot and tangle, with the judicious help of Lydia, she had her hair knot free enough to clean it.

Putting her head over a cauldron and closing her eyes, Lydia dumped the bucket of water over her hair, and and began to run a lathered potion made from various flowers through it, the magic of the potions slowly working out the dirt and grime. The potion itself worked as a mild poison, so lydia had to be careful.

Eventually all of her now upper back length pitch black hair was clean, and she sat in a chair reading whilst it dried.

After it was dry enough, she had Lydia help her braid most of it. The entirety of her hair was pulled into countless thin braids, each with a flat gold cap at the end holding them closed. She pulled most of the braids back into a now much more elaborate looking ponytail, with two braids framing her face just in front of her ears.

Neka sighed as she looked herself over, then brought out a thin brush, with black paint on it, and carefully applied it around her eyes until it gave her eyes a black outline, then she ran it over her lips.

She didn't apply anything else, she was already naturally beautiful, but it felt nice to be cleaned up again. She'd already washed her body in the river.

Neka then began to assemble her armor over herself, and nodded with approval. She didn't need the cloak today, and as she pulled the hood up, she grinned.

Things were looking up. Now, she needed to answer the Greybeard's call soon enough.

* * *

Before Neka left, she got some smithing lessons from Adriana, and comparing Adriana's technique to Eorland's, she saw that Adriana wasn't too dissimilar in skill.

So, the skyforge is what make's his "skill" so great.

Anyway, Neka decided not to try and forge a new weapon just yet, she wished to be more comfortable with her new forging techniques. Perhaps she'd do some production work for one of the imperial camps for a bit later on. For now, she simply replaced her shoddy longbow with a basic elven bow and a quiver stuffed full of elven arrows.

Going back up to the keep, Neka nodded to the guards, who let her in with a few stares.

Ah, how she missed those looks of longing, let it never be said she was ignorant of her allure.

She nodded to the Jarl as she entered Farengar's sanctuary.

"Farengar, how far are you into your research?" The disheveled wizard looked up from his study and murmered a greeting.

"Not far I'm afraid, while there is some small translation of the dragon text, it is not enough to fully translate this. I do have a general idea though, this map is a map of dragon burial sights." Neka's eyes widend and her bloodred eyes gained a mischevious glimmer.

"Hmm, very interesting, you do have another copy of the map somewhere yes?" The wizard nodded and she grabbed it, placing it in her satchel.

Her business done, she quickly learned a few more spells from him, the interesting ones to her was the conjure familiar and raise weak undead.

The familiar conjured appeared to actually be a ghost of a wolf. It felt strangely, well, familiar. As if she'd had it with her her whole life. She'd have to study it more later.

The latter worked slightly different from the cyrodiilic variant, but not much, she'd have to find higher level spells, maybe she'd go to the college after the greybeards.

* * *

Neka entered her house and began packing, she pulled on her cloak and gathered her potions. Pulling on the again empty dufflebag and her new elven longbow and quiver of elven arrows she left the city.

Soon enough she was out of town raiding bandit hideouts and collecting bounties as she saw fit on her way to Helgen (now much more convinced she'd actually get a payout on the bounties with her status), her first stop for her research notes.

After a day or so, she was again at the still slightly smoldering ruins of Helgen.

Pushing through the charred gates, she noticed the bandits already picking through the ruins. At the sight of her they readied their weapons and charged.

Taking out her sword and dagger, dagger held in reverse grip in her other hand, she prepared herself for the charging bandits.

The first one she easily stabbed with the dagger, using her entire armored arm like a shield to push through her defense and stab the female bandit in the heart.

the next bandit came in with a Warhammer, and caught her in the side. luckily, her solid armor stopped her from breaking any ribs, but Neka was pretty sure that she'd at least cracked a few. She got her revenge my ducking under the next swing and stabbing up through his head through the sot underside of the jaw.

When it seemed like she was going to be overwhelmed by four more bandits, she activated her flame cloak, burning off the skin and flesh of those close.

Then she activated the rune she'd sneakily placed at the beginning of the battle.

The chief was still standing, strangely, a ward protecting him from the flames. Neka licked her lips, she'd been searching for a ward spell, what a fascinating bit of Nordic magic, even if unrefined.

The chieftain was clad in a strange armor she hadn't seen before, it almost looked like the metal was carved out, with fine black fur lining it. and finally a bear helmet.

Quickly getting in his guard she stabbed into his stomack, but was shocked when her sword faled to get through and in fact got a bit chipped.

Narrowing her eyes, she deduced that that armor had a higher hardness factor than typical moonstone, seeing as her high end steel sword was now damaged.

This was troublesome, Even as she blocked his attack with her left arm she hissed in pain from the jolting movement, and she noticed his weapon digging deeply into the steel.

He wasn't wearing normal steel, but it was also obviously steel.

Perhaps... this was some form of alloy, they weren't used much because of the effort in using them, but she did know of them.

She'd get to study it if she killed him, so she grunted and used a very expensive scroll she'd bought from an imperial trader who'd stopped by Whiterun before she left. It had an invisibility affect, and she shimmered from view.

Of course, the chieftain wasn't stupid, he could see the shimmering and tried to charge at her again, but Neka ran away into the building, then crouched down and hid, preparing her dagger.

She'd noticed his neck was mostly unprotected, so when he came running in, she grabbed him from behind and stabbed him.

Or she would have, if he hadn't elbowed her in the ribs.

Stepping away, she began to wail on him with her sword, and finally managed to sneak in a fireball and blew him off his feet.

Before he could get back up again, Neka had already slit his throat. She let out a massive breath, he was much more skilled than the common bandit fodder.

Standing up, she began to walk to the carts area.

Once there all she could see was a pile of charcoal, but abandoned close to two burnt corpses was a large chest that already looked to be raided.

Opening it, she came across several lightly burnt articles of clothing, including her own old black robes over chainmail with internal silk padding.

She stuffed her old armor, which was now half burnt, into her duffel bag for mostly sentimental reasons, now having a much more effective armor, and still dug around for her journal. Of course her gold was gone, as well as her favorite necklace made from moonstone pieces, but she couldn't find her journal.

Looking around at the bandits, she groaned.

She'd have to search every one of them.

* * *

A few hours into darkness Neka finally found her journal in the personal chest of the chieftain on top of the tower. She had noticed quite a few more dog eared pages than normal and smoldered in rage at the knowledge someone else had read it.

Stuffing it in her satchel, she exited Helgen and went towards Falkreath.

After walking through the forest for another few hours, it was just about dawn when she got there, before she could get close to the gates thought, she was interrupted by a bark.

Looking to the side, she saw a rather ordinary looking Skyrim dog.

"Shoo, I've got stuff to do." The dog tilted it's head.

"Eh, don't shoo me you necrophiliac! I got a quest for you!"

Eyes widening, Neka looked to the dog, and her heart stopped for a second.

She knew of only one dog that could talk.

"Barbas? Hound of Clavicus Vile?" Neka's face paled, no no no no no, she REALLY didn't need to get involved in daedric shenanigans right now!

"Ah, so you've heard of me? Ha, well then this should be easy, I need an escort back to my master because, eh, we've kind of had a falling out." Neka snorted quietly and murmured to herself.

"Like only every century." The dog glared at her.

"Anyway, I need you to bring me to him so we can make up, I'm sure my master can provide you a suitable boon for restoring me to him." Neka sighed, damnit, she wasn't powerful enough to apose even Barbas at the moment, from what she knew he held half of Vile's power... which scared her, a lot.

"Alright, I'll do as you... request. Where is his shrine?" Barbas nodded.

"In the mountain pass at Heimar's Shame." Neka blinked, that was far too convenient to be chance, no doubt deadric shenanigans again.

"Alright, I was going that way anyway, I need to stop by in Falkreath first though, sell all my junk you see." Barbas nodded and Neka began her trek again.

When in Falkreath, she got a bit nosy and investigated the rumors of a man who tore apart a little girl, and not very surprised when she learned he was a werewolf, she made a note again to go after him and study him, she had never seen a werewolf before, and their transformations fascinated her.

She also noted the gigantic graveyard, there must have been thousands of graves, many of them were unmarked rock piles, but still, that was possibly hundreds of useable skeletons.

She quickly did a task for the Jarl, and promptly got a thane recommendation if she was known throughout the hold, she just blinked again, the nord system was so easily exploitable.

After that she made her way to Heimar's Shame. The journey was surprisingly calm, wild animal and bandit attacks were becoming normal for her, and she also was beginning to form an attachment to Barbas, even if he was a smartass.

"Oooh I hate this pass, it's so cold here." Neka blinked at that, she wasn't even cold yet but half a daedric prince was complaining about the cold?

She voiced these thoughts and it only made Barbas laugh.

"Hah, say that to Clavicus, I'm sure he'll appreciate the joke. Besides, I'm not exactly a winter breed, you know? I manifested down in Cyrodiil last time, so that's why I'm cold. What I wouldn't do to be a husky right about now." Barbas muttered that last bit, making Neka laugh. Indeed, being a short furred mutt wasn't very useful up in Skyrim.

They quickly found the Entrance to Heimar's shame, but before she entered, Barbas perked up.

"Oh, I should probably tell you, the shrine's hosting a buncha vamps at the moment. You know, those bloodsucking guys who Molag just loves to bits... literally?" Neka sighed.

"I know what Vampires are Barbas, don't patronize me." Barbas barked.

"Do you now?" She eyed him suspiciously, before sighing again (a common thing caused by his antics)

"Also, you could have told me sooner." Barbas gave a doggish shrug, then they entered the cave system.

Quickly Neka found the first set of enemies, a high elf vampire stood up from his perch before calling out loudly about intruders, then started bombarding her with ice spells.

Hissing from the encroaching frostbite on her affected areas, Neka quickly covered herself in a flame cloak to ward off the spell's lingering after affects, then launched an ice spike of her own into the Vampire's head.

She didn't like using frost spells, but this one was useful for accurate strikes. plus, pinning an enemy to the wall by their head was immensely satisfying.

Then the three vampires, our two and a vampire's thrall it seemed, came charging at her. Red swirling mists surrounded her as the strong thrall fought her with a great-axe. and Neka felt the exhaustion of two big battles take their toll on her, even thought she'd only been in one small fight.

So, growing a bit desperate from that feeling of exhaustion and fatigue, Neka gathered and overpowered fireball in her hands and slammed it into the ground.

It blasted outwards, knocking the thrall back and disrupting the vampire's focus, allowing her some breathing room as she angrily leaped atone of the vampire casters, using her sword to cut cleanly through half of her neck, killing the vampire, then using her claw arm to block a swing from the still alive thrall.

 _'So it's master is the other one?'_

Making a quick decision, Neka ducked under the next swing before sweeping out wither leg, tripping the vampire and allowing her to maul the back of his head with her claw, making a great big bloody mess but still leaving the vampire alive.

So, thinking quickly, Neka sent a blast of basic sparks into his head, killing the vampire.

The thrall behind her fell to the ground, before incinerating itself into dust.

She quickly drank a cure disease potion, she didn't need to be a vampire just yet.

Neka quickly made her way through the rest of the shrine, finding a few useful bits and bobs, along with some interesting books.

Finally though, she made it to Vile's shrine.

"Ah, another champion of the age, I've always liked you guys, always willing to make deals with just about anyone if it gets you more loot." Neka blinked, champion?

"Ah, but I'm not supposed to tell you such things, oh well, anyway, I have a deal for you, what do you wish for, what is your heart's desire?" Neka crossed her arms sighed, she'd have to be blunt.

"Ultimate power, immortality, rule over all of Nirn, but I'm not requesting anything from you, Clavicus, you are far too untrustworthy." Somehow, she could imagine Clavicus clutching at his chest with the back of his other hand held to his forehead has he made a dramatic sound.

"Oh whoa is me, the mortals don't trust my business ventures any more, all of those souls running into my domain will trickle to nothing. OH WELL, I'll just have to wait a few decades and it'll all blow over." Neka sighed.

"Can we get to the point of this sire? I know you have a task for me, daedric princes ALWAYS have tasks for mortals, no idea why you care, but you do... boredom I guess?"

"Precisely, anyway, you see, I only have half my power at the moment, the other half is sealed inside Barbas. As much as I hate to say it, your probably just as powerful as me right now." Neka just crossed her arms and rose a brow.

"Oh fine, your no fun. ok, there's this axe, and extremely powerful axe. If you could get that for me, well, I could have quite a bit of fun indeed. Talk to the mutt if you want more information on it." Neka looked ot the dog and he sighed.

"One of Clavicus's "little jests". A wizard named Sebastion Lort had a daughter who worshiped Hircine. When the daughter became a werewolf it drove Sebastian over the edge. He couldn't stand to see his little girl take on such a bestial form. The wizard wished for the ability to end his daughter's curse. Clavicus gave him an axe. His cave is up in northern Solitude, along the coast." Neka rubbed her chin.

"That will take a while. You stay here, I don't want a daedric being accompanying me for the better part of a few months, who knows what could happen." Barbas sighed and sat on his heels.

"Fine, leave me with the prankster god, yep, greeeeat idea." Neka ignored his whining as she left the cave, destination set on the hamlet at the foot of the mountain.

* * *

 **Done with fifth chapter, woo.**

 **Neka is terrified of the daedric princes, enough that she doesn't want anything to do with them or the artifacts, but has unwittedly become rather attached to Barbas.**

 **Her fears will become a problem come the dlc... "Evile grin"**


End file.
